


Ectober

by Guardian_Rex



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Ectober 2020 (Danny Phantom), Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:14:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26776456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_Rex/pseuds/Guardian_Rex
Comments: 15
Kudos: 14





	1. Crown

Danny did not defeat the usurpereus king, not alone. The witch who wielded the gifts he enchanted for her in ways he never could slew the tyrant’s mortal servant with the force of nature’s wrath and coiled the fool king in thorns and swept him over in waves. The hundred hands of the knowing sister landed blow after blow upon the filthy mother killer, each fist burning him with the knowledge of what he had done, forcing him to understand all the suffering he had caused. The Grave Huntress wielded her mightiest weapon from leagues away and struck the conquerer with such force that his armor was torn asunder, shattered into useless pieces. Danny hadn’t even been the one to strike the final blow, no he’d only brought his loved ones to the battle.

Danny had raged, frozen and burning and shocking with a voice beyond thunder, with strikes that were tendrils of raw power that severed the would be king’s hand. He wailed the collective grief of the Infinite Realms and down crashed the cursed corrupter. The boy who was man, who was woman who was neither and both, who was pharaoh and peasant and all between rose and climbed the fallen warrior’s body, and with a spear made by mortal hands and a refusal to be subjugated the nonbeliever made mortal out of a god. Danny did not deserve the title of king slayer, of war ender, of he who fell the tyranny of the Usurper.

It  _ was _ Danny who grasped the ring of Rage and poured into it the power he had been blessed and cursed with. It was Danny who made a star around the ring and watched as it’s life ended in the brilliant way all stars did, taking the ring with it. It was Danny who destroyed the last piece of War, setting Peace free and avenging the queen. Thus it was his heavy head upon which rested the crown.


	2. The witch's ring and magic bag

Some closed-minded people would look at Sam and think that she was a witch because she wore dark clothes and had a sour mood. She laughed at these people who thought, even when she’d first moved into town and had traded clothes with Danny, that she would hex the people she didn’t like all because her skirt was all black and she didn’t smile at every little thing. It was, to her, as hilarious as it was wrong. Sam may have thought the supernatural was cool, and dark magic an exciting thing to look for in fiction, but as far as she was concerned that was all it was. Fiction.

When cats, especially black ones, and corvids swarmed Danny with affection, some people called him a witch, but not the way that the A-listers did it. Regular passerby students who simply saw a crow land on Danny’s shoulder at lunch and get scritches under the beak, and a black cat crawling up into his lap and presumed him to be a witch with a close friendship with all the creatures around him. This was also funny and untrue, but close enough to the truth that the trio never actually corrected anyone about it. Danny, after all, did use magic in it’s rawest possible form.

There was a point, however, when mocking comments become helpful suggestions, and Sam began to study the occult and mystical, and she learned quite a few things. She learned that it was inherently unsafe to channel magical energy through your own body, as it could lead to all sorts of mutations that usually ended in a grissly or at the very least painful death. This was why so many magical items existed, allowing humans to use the powers that ghosts and spirits weilded without speeding up their trips to the afterlife in the process. She also learned, that one could make a pact with a spirit, and the pact had very simple purpose once boiled down enough.

Regardless of whatever task the spirit gives to the person requesting power from them, they get something very specific out of it all: power. The spirit would pour a small amount of energy into the witch asking for it, planting a seed of sorts, and that witch would go about using and cultivating that magic, helping it grow stronger and stronger throughout their life. Whenever that magic went back to the spirit, they would find themself recieving that power with interest. Simple cosmic capitalism that Sam would reluctantly admit made just a bit of sense.

As Sam went to work pulverizing valerian, rue, bay leaves, dill, caraway, lavender and sandalwood into a pouch, she realized that she may have started on the path to becoming a witch. “Try charging this up with your energy, without like destroying it.” She handed it over to Danny, who caught it clumsily and stared at her. “Think of it like a cup that you’re pouring the ecto-energy into and just don’t overfill it.”

“Should I… practice this a few times with other things? I don’t wanna animate your bag of stuff.” Danny shook it gently and snorted. “Is this supposed to make it a bag of holding or whatever?”

Sam punched him int he shoulder and rolled her eyes. “No, it’s meant to be an artifact that can turn my home into a safe zone. Once it’s charged up with energy, it’ll keep evil from the house.” Danny arched a brow at her and she scowled. “Something wrong?”

“You know, I never thought you’d actually go and roll with what the A-listers call you. Magic, Sam, really?” Tucker didn’t even look up from his PDA when he said that, and Sam rewarded him for his snark by gently tapping his shins with her boots. “Ow!”

“We’ve all seen magic with our own eyes, Tucker. Freakshow’s staff, Dora’s amulet, the Infimap, Clockwork’s medallions. It exists, and why shouldn’t we try and make use of it?” Tucker shrugged, ceeding her point, and she turned tro Danny. “You’re a lot better at controlling your powers than before, Danny. Heck, you’ve projected your energy into stuff without destrouing before too! Remember when you phased Tucker into your parent’s weird dungeon from a distance?”

Tucker shudderred. “Yeah, I don’t like to think too long as to why they have that. Does being the electric company really get them that much money that they can blow it on recreational sub basements?”

Danny stared blankly at nothing for a long moment before focusing on Sam, and she snorted. “Do you still have that ring I gave you?”

“Yeah… why?”

“Lemme see that first, and then I’ll try this out with your weird bag thing.” Sam rolled her eyes, muttering that it was a sachet, not just a bag, and headed inside. When she returned, she dropped the ring in his hand and he grinned at her. “Why thank you, Sammy, you’re ever so-”

“I will hurt you, ghost boy, I will do it.” Danny held up his hands in surrender, taking a step back, before relaxing and focusing on the ring in his hand. The air buzzed with the current of power coming off of Danny, and his palm began to glow emerald like it did when he was preparing an ectoblast. After a moment, the glow died down a bit and he opened his palm, showing the ring now letting off a soft glow of it’s own. “Hey, I didn’t break it.”

Sam snorted and plucked the ring from his hand, turning it over in her fingers. It didn’t melt or explode or anything else like that, just hummed with warmth in her hand. Slipping it in her pocket, she punched him gently on the arm. “Nice going. Now, the sachet?”

“Yeah yeah, it’s for protection, right?” Sam nodded and Danny held the pouch with both hands. His freckles all glittered silver and gold, emerald and midnight blue light surging out from his chest down his hands and into the bag, his eyes a rainbow, and Sam’s breath caught in her throat. It was like watching a bolt of lightning land in a bottle and curl up, deciding to stay as the bottle acclimated. The lightshow dimmed eventually and Danny slowly blinked, handing the sachet over to Sam. “Guess I had that in the bag.”

“You were  _ so cool _ for a minute there, Danny,” Tucker said with a groan. “You were almost spooky.”

“Danny is incapable of being scary or spooky, Tucker, you know this.” Sam smirked at the sheer offense on Danny’s face and cackled. “Lemme put this in the house and let’s see if it worked.”

Sam went inside and hid the sachet in her room, behind the plants that her parents never touched. The air buzzed with power as it swept out in a wave over the building and Sam felt like she was wearing the sweater her nana had knit for her, sitting by the fire and listening to her talk about her own rebellious phase in childhood. She took a deep breath and smiled, heading down to the boys. “Guys, it  _ worked. _ We did magic!”

“Sweet! Think we can manage this for the rest of the town?” Danny’s eyes were bright and he looked like he had just had five cans of soda.

“I dunno if we can make these work for  _ that _ much, Danny, but I can look into something for the town. For now, how about our houses and the school and stuff?”

“Wow,” Tucker said, leaning on Sam. “Guess you really are a witch now, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess I am.”


	3. Energy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valerie asks Danny a simple question

“Danny,” Valerie said, pulling his attention away from the doodles in his notebook and up to her face, which was painted with curiosity. “I just realized I never asked, but how can your folks afford all the stuff they have, like that giant  _ thing _ on the top of your house?”

Brows furrowed, Danny shrugged. “I thought that was kinda obvious, how they get money?” Valerie shook her head and held up a finger.

“See, it hit me that ghost hunting the way they do it doesn’t pay, they don’t film it for an audience. Then, I thought maybe they sell their weapons to the military or something, but there aren’t any propaganda signs or videos or whatever telling us that we’ve got the best possible weapons that shoot plasma and shit and the enemy doesn’t or whatever.” She held up a second finger and Danny nodded.

“What do you think of this pattern? I’m thinking of making something based on my drawings, but I dunno…” He held up his notebook, a scarab sitting on a leaf beneath a stary sky sketched onto the paper. She gasped, and Danny winced.

“Danny, that’s amazing! I can’t wait to see how you color it in, let alone whatever you’re gonna put that on. What’s the plan there?” Danny’s face burned and the conversation turned to his art and whether Kwan would like it.

* * *

Once dinner was on the table - mashed potatoes and gravy with cooked ham and while Danny could see the UV light bouncing off of it as he did with everything, from what he could tell it wasn’t glowing green with ectoplasmic contamination or attacking them - Danny decided that halfway through with his plate was as good a time as any to ask questions that might take all night or two seconds. “Mom, Dad, what do you do for money? I  _ know _ no one in town is paying you to ghost hunt.” Everyone turned to stare at him and Danny shrugged, picking up a piece of ham with his fork. “A friend asked and I realized I didn’t know.”

“Huh,” Jazz said, “actually I don’t know either. Your parapsychological research can’t possibly earn any big grants unless the government is trying project Stargate again.” Jazz raised some peas to her mouth then set her fork down and all but begged, “please do not participate in project Stargate.”

“Jazz,” Mom said, looking and sounding as offended as Vlad did when Danny suggested online dating. “We would  _ never _ be part of something as ridiculous as that. Humans can’t have ghost powers or use magic. There aren’t any ethical ways of changing that fact either, and we’re not about to start trying.”

“I doubt even the government would try any of the barely feasible methods of giving a human scrying powers or whatever.” Dad rolled his eyes and Danny snorted, nearly choking on his milk. “I’m shocked you kids don’t know what we do for money though, it’s not like we keep it a secret. Then again, it’s not GHOSTS so we don’t tend to bring it up much around here, do we?”

“That’s true. Most of our money comes from the power plants, Danny, I could’ve sworn we told you that before. “Danny, dazed by the directions the conversation had gone in, simply shook his head and Mom hummed. “We have vertical windmills stationed on high traffic roads and solar panels usually attached to them, as well as the nuclear power plant a bit further out.”

“I’m sorry, Mom, what?” Jazz looked like she had nearly choked on her food and Danny gave her a pat on the back, seeing her aura rise from the thin, barely visible mist it usually was to a cloud of teal that only he could see. “Did you just say that there’s a nuclear reactor powering the town that you own? Isn’t that a bit - gods, I don’t know if you even understand this word anymore - dangerous?”

Dad snorted around his hame and Danny cringed at the sound. “If we used  _ uranium _ , sure. The plant is thorium-based, Jazzy, nothing to worry about. We have the best staff only at Fenton works, making sure it’s all perfectly safe!” Danny exchanged a look with his sister, and her eyes held the same idea that their parents didn’t exactly understand the meaning of the word safe as others did. “Plus, your mom and I’ve been working on something amazing!”

“Ectoplasmic batteries that could, potentially, hold all the energy that we get from the sun for enough time to power, heck, the whole city on sunlight alone!” Mom had a gleam in her eyes that Danny only ever saw when she was talking about eradicating ghosts or bragging about how smart Jazz was, and he couldn’t help the cold dread crawling down his spine.

“And exactly what about ectoplasm makes it good for batteries compared to an alkaline or lithium battery?” His plate was cleared, apparently, which surprised him only a little since he did forget about what he was doing when his attention got caught at times. He wondered briefly how ectoplasm in the body affected ADHD meds. After all, one needed to know if ectoplasm made meth inert.

Mom chuckled and shook her head. “Danny, that’s like asking the difference between a watch battery and the nuclear powerplant running the town. Ectoplasm, in its raw form, is an energy thief that can store so much energy per gram that I’m rather sure that once we perfect this battery model we have going we could completely do away with fossil fuels entirely.”

“It can conduct energy like nothing on earth, hence our weapons and their efficiency! A kilogram of ectoplasm can hold enough energy that it’s practically limitless!” Dad started going on and on about what had been said but in different ways, and Danny let his mind drift to what felt like a very important question. If simple ectoplasm all on its own could conduct and hold all that energy, how much could a ghost? 

How much could he?

Maybe he  _ should _ take a power nap in the sun.


	4. Green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny Fenton hates green

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> angst warning goes uh here, i think lol

Danny Fenton hated the color green. It was a Christmas color of course and stars how he hated  _ that _ . It was the color of ghosts and ghouls that his parents warned him and Jazz about, lurking in every shadow of his childhood to scare him, hurt him, kill him. It was the color of the chemicals his parents slaved over in the lab when they had kids to be raising. It was the color that filled his eyes when he died.

Danny bled green, the ooze that came from  _ monsters _ instead of the red of people. His eyes reflected green in the mirror at times, poisonous, lethal,  **Wrong** . Green was the smoke and plasma that burned over his palm as he attacked the emerald monsters that plagued his town. His greatest enemy covered his home in gold and green while breaking Danny’s heart at the thought that maybe, just maybe there was someone like him he could rely on out there and showing that green hearts held no kindness in them.

The fire blazing around the war god’s stolen crown was that hated green, burning with hatred and vitriol. Green was the blade of nightmares made real, that cut through his friend, aimed at him. Green was the shield crumbling and cracking and shattering under the onslaught of green from his parents’ weapons. Green filled the barrel of his father’s bazooka, as the end of the barrel all but slammed into his face.

Danny loathed the color green. It was the last thing he saw before he died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am sorry


End file.
